Vegan/Vegetarian Living On Campus
Dining Halls *'Harvest Station': The first/most obvious choice for food in the dining halls! The Harvest Station doesn't serve any meat. Often their food is made with cheese, eggs, or other dairy - a great place for vegetarians but sometimes a strikeout for vegan entrees! *'Sautee Station:' Serves pasta made to order. The noodle options are always egg-less, the marinara sauce is vegan, the alfredo sauce is vegetarian, and they have a lot of veggies you can add to your pasta! There is no vegan/vegetarian protein (like seitan, etc.). Also, the workers use the same few pans to cook everyone's pasta in - if the student in line before you got a bunch of meat in their dish and you're concerned about residuals, you can request thaty they clean out the pan or use a different one and they're usually happy to oblige! *'Pizza Station:' Always always has a plain cheese pizza! Sometimes they get more elaborate with veggie pizza options, but typically anything other than cheese pizza has meat on it. A no-go for vegans though - the dining hall has (very wisely, imho) chosen to steer clear of vegan cheese. *'Salad Bar:' Probably the most consistent option in the dining halls. Cathey is much better stocked than Bartlett! There are usually enough options for you to make a really yummy, protein- and veggie-rich salad. Vegetarians won't have trouble with salad dressings, but sometimes they don't have any vegan dressings (or if they do it's just balsamic vinaigrette and like fuck that). In that case you can use a selection of oils they keep at the end of the bar, or even hummus! Friendly reminder that Caesar dressing is made with anchovies. *'Mongolian Grill Station:' Located in Cathey only, and doubles as a gluten-free station. Here you can get made-to-order stir fry. There's always tofu that they'll cook for you (as opposed to the totally raw tofu served at the salad bar) and they give you tons of vegetables, as well as an option for rice and various sauces (soy, teriyaki, etc). This is also a super consistent option and so far as the dining halls go, a fairly tasty one! *'Kosher Station:' Go here for hummus and pita. Do not get the hummus and pita at the salad station. Just do what I say and be much happier for it. *'Desserts:' Vegetarians rest easy, as you can pretty much always patron the dessert area! (Except for once in Cathey they served some sort of bacon dessert that was really disgusting on countless levels.) For vegans, you're usually out of luck. The dining halls rotate the type of ice cream they serve, and sometimes there's a sorbet option that you can eat. Note that sorbet = vegan (basically just fruit and sugar and water), but sherbet = not vegan (contains eggs, gelatin, cream). Rumor has it you can also ask for vegan cookies and the workers will give you little packs of them?? ??? but? unconfirmed. *'Miscellaneous:' #Note that while the dining halls claim anything being served with utensils labeled blue is vegan and anything being served with green utensils is vegetarian, this is pretty often not the case !!!! In fact, just treat the utensil colors as irrelevant otherwise you'll end up with ground beef in your beans and be like wow this tastes weird what is this?? and then realize and cry and then throw up because it's been years since you had meat in your system and the dining hall will be like oh sorry here have a free meal and you'll be like this university forced me into an unlimited meal plan thanks no thanks. Always refer to the signs with the listed ingredients and allergen information at the station you're getting food from to verify what it contains!!! #The dining halls serve Silk soy milk in dispensers next to the dairy milk. At least in Cathey, these run empty pretty frequently though (they're filled up just once a week). In Cathey, you can check the side of the island opposite the one that has the soda, milk, and soy milk dispensers - underneat the toaster are refrigerators that are typically stocked with individual cartons of soy milk and/or rice milk. So when all else fails, you'll always have cereal. #Speaking of toasters, the dining halls have one! Next to it is a display filled with various bread items (plain bread, bagels, English muffins in their packaging so you can check for eggs and milk and stuff) that you can toast and top with butter, peanut butter, jelly, or whatever else you can find at the condiment station. Coffee Shops *'Ex Libris:' For vegans, they keep food from B'Gabs Goodies (a raw vegan restaurant with two locations near campus) stocked, if raw food is something you're into. If raw food isn't something you're into, they carry really good bagels, miscellaneous vegan other restaurants around Hyde Park (like a seaweed salad from The Sit Down), and they also have a vending machine with various snacks behind this opaque wall in the front of the shop that accepts cash and cards! For vegetarians, go hard - there are TONS of baked goods (cookies, donuts, brownies) in addition to all the vegan food you can eat. *'Cobb: ' *'Div School:' *'Hallowed Grounds:' Stocks various vegan wraps as well as these weird lasagna things?? and other explicitly vegan food that I've actually never tried because I'm afraid of the calorie count. Plus they have food from one of the Indian restaurants in Hyde Park, some of which have meat but some of which are vegetarian or vegan. Also has bagels, but these aren't as good as the other shops (I.M.H.O) and usually some fruit like bananas and apples! *'''Harper: '''Has basically the same vegan/vegetarian options as Hallowed, but they carry more baked goods (like cookies the size of a dinner plate) for vegetarians. Hutch Commons Hutch Commons has a Qdoba, some pizza chain, Subway, Saffron (Indian restaurant) and more where you're guaranteed a good vegetarian option and at the very least a kinda crappy vegan option! They accept maroon dollars and meal exchanges. There's also an Einstein Bagels right next to Hutch in Reynolds Club for more elaborate bagels! They also accept maroon dollars and meal exchanges. On Wednesdays, go here for Dollar Shakes. BSLC On the second floor of the BSLC (bio building) is a Red Mango (frozen yogurt) and other miscellaneous food shop that accepts both maroon dollars and meal exchanges (the latter for the non-Red Mango food). For vegetarians, yay frozen yogurt on campus!! For vegans and vegetarians alike, they have *super delicious* tofu dogs and a bunch of toppings - ask for vegan soy mayo and avocado! All the other food they have is the pre-made boxed food standard across UChicago markets. Vegan Dollar Shakes Beginning this year (2015-2016), the UChicago Animal Welfare Society will sell vegan Dolalr Shakes on Wednesdays in Reynolds Club, so that vegans and those who are lactose-intolerant can participate in this celebrated UChicago tradition! The ice cream base for the shakes comes from the same wholesale supplier that the Chicago Diner uses, so you know they're good.